Labels

Dzeko sent off for pulling down opposing player’s shorts

Edin Dzeko had the bare cheek to pull down an opposing player’s shorts in a bizarre twist to his country’s match with Greece in a World Cup 2018 qualifier, but the captain of Bosnia and Herzegovina ended up seeing red when he was subsequently sent-off.

The incident, in the last 10 minutes of the World Cup qualifier when Dzeko’s team were leading 1-0, started when the former Manchester City player, now at Roma, went down under a challenge from Sokratis Papastathopoulos just outside the opponents’ penalty area. The Greek’s shorts were pulled down as he attempted to wrestle the ball out of Dzeko’s grasp, resulting in an altercation involving most of the players from both sides as well as both teams’ technical staff. Dzeko, who was already on a yellow card, was sent off by the referee, Jonas Eriksson, while Kyriakos Papadopoulos was given a straight red for pushing in the skirmishes after the initial incident. Greece went on to get an equaliser in injury time with both teams reduced to 10 men. “I got a red card for no reason, I don’t know why,” Dzeko said afterwards. “The referee says I started the whole thing, but I was the only one ending on the floor, so how could I have started it? He added: “I feel like losing 3-0. Greece didn’t deserve this point. They didn’t even deserve a 1-0 loss, they deserved to lose 4-0”.